NC Health Secretary Aldona Wos Resigning

North Carolina's highest ranking health official is stepping down. Aldona Wos has led Governor Pat McCrory's health department since 2013. Her tenure included threats from the federal government over food stamp delays but also significant improvements in the state's Medicaid budget.

Governor McCrory says when he and Wos entered office, this was waiting for them:

"For four consecutive years, there were shortfalls in Medicaid that totaled nearly $2 billion," he said at a press conference Wednesday.

The health department also faced significant technological problems during her tenure. Two new systems, NC Tracks and NC FAST, were in development before she took office but rolled out under her leadership.

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The new system North Carolina uses to process Medicaid payments is still a nightmare for many providers. That's one of several controversies that legislative oversight committees focused on Tuesday in Raleigh. Lawmakers also found out more about food stamp delays. And they directed pointed questions at Secretary of Health and Human Services Aldona Wos and her top staff.

Governor Pat McCrory's administration is still working on an overhaul of one of North Carolina's most important – and expensive – health programs.

Medicaid serves about one and a half million low-income or disabled North Carolinians. And it costs the state roughly $36 million a day. McCrory has said the program is broken and inefficient, often pointing to an audit that found North Carolina is horrible at managing costs and budgeting.

For the first time in five years, North Carolina will not end a fiscal year with hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid cost overruns. That's according to the General Assembly's fiscal research division. The improvement comes after the state hired a consulting firm to help with budgeting.

North Carolina's food stamp delays are unacceptable, but there's no timeline for when they'll stop. That's what North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services Aldona Wos told lawmakers Tuesday. A legislative committee also grilled her about her department mailing nearly 50,000 children's insurance cards to the wrong addresses.

The problems in Health and Human Services are affecting the poorest people in North Carolina the most.